As people around the world continue to watch in horror at the devastated communities and swelling numbers of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is committed to supporting animal welfare groups that are working tirelessly to house, feed, and care for animals affected by the ongoing crisis.
As people around the world continue to watch in horror at the devastated communities and swelling numbers of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is committed to supporting animal welfare groups that are working tirelessly to house, feed, and care for animals affected by the ongoing crisis.
With the war in Ukraine now well into its second year, the level of destruction that continues to be inflicted upon the country’s people and animals is truly staggering.
In September, at a federally inspected slaughterhouse in Pennsylvania, a pig was shot three times in the head, but remained alive—vocalizing after each shot. The facility did not have a backup stunning device, so a worker drove home, returning 10 minutes later with another gun to finally put the animal out of his misery.
In many cities, horse-drawn carriages are seen as tourist attractions, taking visitors on tours of city streets and evoking nostalgic images of days gone by. Yet, underlying these quaint notions is the reality for the horses: daily exposure to noise and pollution, heavy traffic, hard pavement, long work days, constant heavy loads, and lack of access to pasture. All of these are directly detrimental to horses’ welfare.
Washington, DC—The National Marine Fisheries Service today proposed listing the Taiwanese humpback dolphin (also known as the Taiwanese white dolphin), Sousa chinensis taiwanensis, as endangered, determining that the subs
The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued its latest ruling in April in a decades-long dispute between Mexico and the United States over “Dolphin Safe” labeling of tuna caught in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). The ruling, as other WTO decisions before it, was a victory for Mexico’s multibillion-dollar tuna fishing industry, and a blow to dolphin conservation. The United States has appealed.
AWI is leading a nationwide effort to encourage US restaurants to stop serving shark fin products, and consumers from purchasing them, because of the cruelty of shark finning and the precarious state of shark populations.
In July, a federal appeals court announced it would permit the US Department of the Interior to move forward with new oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, subject to an analysis of the environmental risks.
Recognizing the will of the people of Illinois and championing America's horses, a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today ruled unanimously to uphold a decision by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, reaffirming the constitutionality of an Illinois law preventing the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
US Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced yesterday in a formal declaration that Iceland is undermining the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by hunting whales in defiance of the IWC’s global ban on commercial whaling.
Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell issued a formal declaration that Iceland is undermining the effectiveness of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and its prohibition on international commercial trade in whale products.
For the first time, several major US egg producers have committed to using a new technology called “in-ovo sexing” that can determine the sex of chicken embryos before they hatch.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced a proposal today to confine red wolves to federal lands—including a bombing range—within Dare County, North Carolina. Carrying out such a plan would doom the red wolf to extinction in the wild.
A controversial US-backed research study that aimed to capture whales in northern Norway and test how they would respond to ocean noise has resulted in the death of a minke whale, the Norwegian Defense Research Institute announced today.
Conservation groups reached an agreement today that will require the United States to stop importing seafood that does not meet US standards for protecting marine mammals.
The US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced today that it will ban imports of Mexican shrimp and other seafood caught in the habitat of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise.
On March 11, 2016, just after midnight, a National Airlines 747 landed at Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport with 17 African elephants from Swaziland. These elephants are victims of a controversial international scheme involving three US zoos—the Dallas Zoo, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, and Wichita’s Sedgwick County Zoo; the Swaziland government; Big Game Parks (BGP), a nonprofit trust in Swaziland; and the US government.
Federal lawmakers have introduced legislation to prevent the establishment of horse slaughter operations within the US, end the current export of American horses for slaughter abroad, and protect the public from consuming toxic horse meat. The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, H.R. 113, was introduced by Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Ed Royce (R-CA), and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM).
On Friday, the US House of Representatives passed the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act of 2015 (H.R. 2406)—a sweeping pro-trophy hunting and trapping bill—by a largely partisan vote of 242 to 161. The Obama administration released a statement strongly opposing H.R. 2406 earlier that same week.
On the opening day of the 111th Congress, Representative Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU), chairwoman of the House Natural Resources Committee's Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, reintroduced the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 81).
